CPEC should be open to Pakistani firms like to Chinese: Dr. Ishrat Hussain

on 04/04/2017
Calls for ensuring level playing field for Pakistani, foreign companies

Renowned economist and former Governor State Bank of Pakistan has said CPEC should be open to Pakistani firms on the same terms as to the Chinese adding Commercial banks should finance Pakistani companies, either stand alone or in joint ventures with the Chinese companies in collaboration with the infrastructure development fund.
Mr. Hussain believes: one of CPEC’s benefits would be the training and development of skilled manpower. Plans have to be made to assess long-term manpower requirements, both for construction as well as the operational phases of CPEC projects.
 “Various categories and levels of training programmes have to thus be designed and then assigned to credible, pre qualified providers. Particular attention should be given to train youth from backward areas, starting with Gwadar all the way to the Karakoram Highway.
A number of private and non-profit organisations are actively engaged in quality vocational and technical training, mainly in Karachi and Punjab. These organisations should be invited to set up similar facilities in other parts of the country where CPEC projects are being executed, he writes in an article.
In addition to this formal training, internships and attachments with Chinese companies working on the projects should be made an integral part of the curriculum. If there is one lasting legacy for which CPEC should be remembered, it is investment in producing skilled and trained technical manpower with different levels of expertise.
Dr. Hussein enshrined six areas of policy where the government has to get serious. They include energy, industry, trade, foreign exchange regime, financial policy and skill development.
He says The Special Economic Zones (SEZs), industrial parks, etc to be set up along CPEC should be open to Pakistani firms on the same terms as to the Chinese. Land should be allotted on long-term lease rather than outright purchase and the leases auctioned only to genuine, pre ualified bidders to eliminate land grabbers and speculators. In Balochistan, some portion should be reserved for local investors wherever feasible. The lease should incorporate a provision that the allotment would be cancelled if the project is not operational within three years. All infrastructure works — power, gas, water, roads, effluent plants, amenities — should be in place before the possession is passed on.
Pre-feasibility studies should be carried out by SEZ authorities through expert consultancy firms or universities, to provide baseline data and information about the kind of projects that can be established in different zones.
He says exports must grow at least 15 per cent annually to meet these new obligations, and remittances have to increase at their historical level. The exchange rate has to be managed deftly to stimulate new export products, new firms and penetration into new markets, while ensuring that prices of imports of capital goods, machinery and equipment are not hiked up, which would make new investments unattractive. Pakistani and other foreign companies winning competitive bidding should have a level playing field.
Also, free trade Agreements have to be renegotiated to preserve the comparative advantage of Pakistani exports and tariff quotas introduced to safeguard against material injury to Pakistani manufacturers. Import tariff rates must be gradually reduced to enable Pakistani companies to participate in the global supply chain.
In Balochistan, southern KP and Gilgit-Baltistan, urban and rural infrastructure projects that link the main highways and motorways under CPEC with the communities should be given priority by their respective set-ups in allocation of development budgets.
In addition to this formal training, internships and attachments with Chinese companies working on the projects should be made an integral part of the curriculum. If there is one lasting legacy for which CPEC should be remembered, it is investment in producing skilled and trained technical manpower with different levels of expertise. – MD

Cement Plants Expanding

on 04/04/2017

Independent sources describe cement industry as one of Pakistan’s top industries, significantly contributing to economy. Pakistan’s cement industry exports cement after serving domestic demand. The industry has attracted domestic and foreign investors in a big way. However, cement industry also has some problems and threats which could affect it negatively. It has seen a big slump in its major export destinations like Afghanistan. Reality checks show cement makers financial year gains are spectacular. Estimates set Lucky Cement at 48%, Kohat 46%, DG Khan 43% and Maple Leaf 43% as top units. Thus to meet cement’s extensive demand,manufacturers are set to expand their facilities and out lets without fear of price wrangling. One of the cement big names – Maple Leaf Cement Factory – is about to expand to new products. Its new 2.3 million ton brown-field expansion program will cost Rs22 billion. To cut down electricity costs and reduce dependence on national grid, the company has formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Maple Leaf Power Ltd (MLPL), primarily, to generate and supply low cost power. MLPL is currently running on 3.2 million tons of clinker production annually, which is about 7% of total cement production. Its share would go up to 8% in next few years. This report gives details of each firm’s spectrum expansion plans. Kohat Cement will expand by 2.3 million tons. Green field expansion may take longer compared to brown field. DG Khan Cement, another big player, would add 2.2 million tons, while Lucky Cement plans to build new expansion plant in Kalar Kahar with 2.3 million tons capacity.  Gharibwal Cement has announced it would add 2.4 million tons of production. Fauji and Thatta Cement have not made any commitment over their expansion plans other than those already under way.  But Thatta Cement has established and consolidated its position as profitable concern. Its position grew by 112% last year and its margins increased from 28% to 32%. Fauji’s silo collapse earlier this year had hurt its earning but after reconstruction of damaged line, it is well set to take its market share. If designed expansion plans come through by end of the decade, production capacity of cement manufacturers will go up from 45 million tons to 67 million tons, which is 50% increase in total capacity. Sector’s performance shows that Total dispatches went up by 10% by end of last year and cement demand is expected to grow about 9 to 15% annually. The industry will then be operating at 90% capacities, say cement producers. There is now enough space for new players to enter the industry, and those already working at lower tiers can reach higher leads. They can set multiple goals. A Chinese firm’s entry was going the rounds, when DCL sources confirmed they will be working with one top Chinese cement firm and that they have agreed with the Chinese firm for diligence.

 

NDRMF gets US$25 million

on 01/03/2017

The ECC has approved the allocation of $25 million equivalent of funds for the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF). The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has set up the fund to have a government-owned sustainable mechanism to support disaster risk financing instruments that can enhance the country’s resilience to natural calamities. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown an indicative assistance of $1.2bn as loan for this fund. The EAD and ADB had signed a loan agreement for $200 million in December 2016 as the first tranche against the total amount. The ECC also approved a grant of Rs12m as equity share of the government of Pakistan to clear liabilities and financial obligations to facilitate the wind-up process of Pakistan Textile City Limited.

Early warning system offered for Peshawar

on 01/03/2017

The Al-Khidmat Foundation has offered to finance early warning system for Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is a disaster-prone city in the province. The offer came during a group discussion on `multiple hazards vulnerability and risk assessment of Peshawar district` the organization said it would install early warning system if the district government provided land for it. The Al-Khidmat Foundation and Riphah University jointly organised the event, which was attended by academicians and officials of the relevant departments. The system costs around Rs30 million and also requires one kanal of land. Though prone to multiple disasters, including flash floods, riverine and urban flooding, Peshawar doesn`t have an early warning system for them. Dr Attaur Rehman, who teaches at the Department of Geography, University of Peshawar, says the rapid and unplanned urbanisation will swallow the entire agricultural land of Peshawar district in the next 50 years. `There is a need for a specific legislation to immediately stop the conversion of agricultural land into residential and commercial areas in Peshawar district otherwise there will be no farmland left in the next 50 years,` he said. The data collected by the revenue department show that the rapid urbanisation and unplanned construction have swallowed more than 3,307 acres of agricultural land in Peshawar district over the last one and a half decade. According to it, the total agricultural land in the provincial capital was 109,883 acres in 2001-02 but that shrank to 106,576 acres in 2013-14. The agricultural land is also under pressure in the adjoining districts of Nowshera and Charsadda due to the unplanned urbanisation. The government has yet to legislate on how to regulate utilisation of land and stop conversion of farmlands into commercial activities. Dr Rehman said Peshawar was among the top districts exposed to the multiple manmade and natural disasters as it did not have any system to forecast nullah flooding. He said the national warning system did not cover streams and seasonal nullahs of Peshawar, which saw devastations caused by urban and riverine floods every year. Khan Zeb, an official of the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar, said the situation was deteriorating due to non-implementation of the building bylaws in the district. He called for the implementation of the relevant laws to prevent urban flooding in the capital. The official said the level of groundwater in the district was also going down. A joint declaration issued after the discussion said the environmental degradation and climate change had increased the likelihood and intensity of natural hazards in Peshawar and other parts of the country. It demanded one per cent budget allocation for climate change adaptation in the next financial year and the use of 50 per cent of it for mapping and assessment related research and development. The declaration suggested that aH projects related to the proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor include prior environmental assessments and hazard mapping in line with the NDMA`s National DRR Policy 2013 with the effective DRR plans on all CPEC routes. It called for the establishment of independent district disaster management units fully equipped with trained people and autonomous in implementing the guidelines in all 105 districts of the country.

What is agility in software engineering?

on 01/03/2017

Change is the most common attribute of this world. Nothing always remains similar for the entire period of time, although minor in some cases but a change is compulsory. In the field of software engineering this word “Change” plays a significant role because the user’s requirement does not always remain the same.

A software requires change when the user’s requirement is changed. “Agility” is the term in software engineering that is related to change,  that is effective (rapid and adaptive) response to change.
In order to response to change effectively there must be effective communication between all the stakeholders. Here I should clear one point, that stakeholders means all those people who are involved in the development of a software, e.g. analyst, designer, programmer and etc. In agility drawing the customer onto the team that is working on the software is very necessary and for that a team should be organised; that includes all the skilled and professional people so that it is in control of the work performed. Dissatisfaction with the overheads involved in software design methods of the 1980s and 1990s led to the creation of agile methods.

The agile methods are given below:

  • Focus of the software engineer should be on the code instead of design
  • Agility should be based on the interactive approach to software development.
  • The method of agility is intended to work on the software efficiently and quickly and deliver the project as early as possible because delivery of the software in time helps the team to meet the changing requirements.

In agile software development, there are some principles that are to be followed:

  • Satisfaction of the customer should be the highest priority of a software engineer and this goal can be achieved by early and nonstop deliveries of the valuable software.
  • A software engineer should welcome the change requirements open heartedly from the customer.
  • Software developers and the business people should work together with effective co-ordination
  • There should be face-to-face communication among all the stakeholders
  • Non-stop attention should be given to the technical work and to the design of software. This helps in enhancing agility.
  • Simplicity should be followed and complexity should be avoided because it is not necessary that the customer always will be a technical person. Complexity can cause various problems for a non-technical customer

A team that is involved in the software development should have creative thinking. A team should be always busy in thinking that how they (as a team) can become more and more effective. We all know that agile methods are so effective but there are some problems through which a software development team undergoes in agile methods, like: I

It can be very complex task to keep the interest of the customer especially when the customer is non-technical

Maintenance of simplicity requires some extra amount of work

Setting priorities for changes can be very difficult when there are multiple stakeholders

Team members may be unsuited to the intense involvement that characterises agile methods.

To follow the principles to agility is very necessary for a software development team in order to achieve the best results. A team should always try to overcome these problems in agility. The quality of a software engineer to give quick and effective response to change can lead any software engineer to the steps of success.